Don't blame you for not switching until you stall, Chris. Especially if it's a routine that you really enjoy.

I switched to this 3 week hypertrophy routine because Id done power lifting style (5x5s) and various versions of more typical lifting (3/12, 3/8, 4/10) and while I've gained a lot of muscle and strength my weight loss has fizzled. I had to eat so much to fuel the heavy lifting and I was putting on muscle so I wanted to switch things up for a bit so that my lifting was more cardiovascular and more focused on growing the muscle that's already there.

The results have actually been really good and I am feeling sore like I haven't felt in a long time but I understand why people say that you can't really do hypertrophy for more than 3-4 weeks at a shot.

I lifted heavily when I was in high school and college but never really switched up my routines to any great extent and since I've started lifting again I've done a lot of reading and video watching and decided that I'd adopt the Arnold approach this time around. He said he never did the same workout twice. I'm not going that crazy but I'm only doing 4-6 weeks of the same routine before switching it up.

Nice, Tom! Sorry you're back/kidney are still hurting but maybe you're peddled back lifts will actually help you in the long run. You know, you're lifting which is good but you're not going 100% so when your back feels better that first few workouts back will probably be killer! A month or two back I read about The Rock and his workouts in the run up to shooting Hercules and he had a really serious hip injury just 6 weeks before shooting Hercules. So he took 4 weeks off completely and was really worried about not being in good enough shape to start shooting, but he said that it ended up making him even better. He said that the layoff was the rest his body needed and when he started lifting again 2 weeks before shooting he managed to get bigger and more cut than he thought he could if he'd worked out all 6 weeks. I've read a number of stories like that so maybe your "lighter" lifts during recovery will actually be a blessing i disguise. Just trying to be positive

I find if I am working out by myself, I forget 20+ years of exercises I use to do regularly... At my age, I really need to keep track better or I never move up in weight or do enough variety of exercises per muscle group. Weight lifting has a new low of dullness and I'd like something to keep the pace up before I wander off to stretching area...

Everything is all X-fit and gobbling up floor space at every gym! Seems like a great routine if you have a trainer and I would love to go that route, but that's big bucks. I am thinking maybe a month of it would be cool to build a routine.

Did something out of the norm today. A friend of ours is a fitness class instructor at a local YMCA and she's starting a new class next month and wanted is t be her guinea pigs so she could fine tune her presentation before the class actually begins. It's basically an aerobic weight lifting class, so lots of bar work for bis/tris/back/shoulders and a LOT of squatting and deadlifting (lower weight, higher intensity).

Class was 1.25hr and was actually a lot of fun. I'm glad to have done it since I missed my morning cardio thanks to a work emergency.

I have straps in my bag, but haven't used them for a couple years now. My grip strength is good, I do fail sometimes on my heaviest sets, but find that my grip strength continues to improve without them.

Shoulder day today....it's "push" movements that have really been bothering my back/kidney, so I lifted short, somewhat light with perfect form, and got through a short shoulder workout without aggravating it at all.

Week 9 of my pl program and everything seems to be coming along well. Next week will be my last week and that's all pr stuff. Will update with all my final numbers and how much it jumped. Pretty stoked on the numbers.